Flamingos Hotel Phnom Penh

... phone calls with the Peace Corps security officer a small group had gathered at the gate including the director of the Provincial Office of Education. My mysterious scowling roommate appeared from seemingly out of nowhere and announced that it was locked in the shed. Sothin and the POE director started laughing. Still laughing, they got on their motos, said goodbye and drove off, laughing all the way. Needless to say I was feeling pretty embarrassed ...

... jam in Phnom Penh is: no one can go very fast. Everything just crawls along amidst the constant honking of horns, which made it seem safer than if everyone was speeding everywhere. So…we rented a motorbike. Our first stop was to a hand-made knife factory, “Citadel” (we had visited their showroom on Monday, and as McNeill and I have both assembled a few knives ourselves, we were interested in seeing a professional operation). It was cool: the owner (who was ...

... is not that long and some smart people made a clever move back then. A smart German owns a great bar along the Mekong river. So we sat down with a beer, some nuts and wi-fi. But yes it was back again......." The Gods of Ankor Wat are following us..!!! " Unbelievable ! Huge water buckets and no stopping at all.!! What´s up?? We managed to stay dry, even as we sat almost inside the bar.!! Crazy, but why do they call it the Mon-soon period ?? Why not ...

... trying to yoink it – but Peter was wise to his games and caught him mid-pilfer and sent the phone flying from his thieving little mitts for a good talking to.

We partied further with more drinks that seemed to materialise by some triple distilled slight-of-hand. We spoke to a cameraman that had worked on ‘Americas Next Top Model’ as well as a new Tony Scott film (he did True Romance) and seemed like a bit of a prick. Anyway, I remember talking ...

... one of the most famous witnesses and survivors of S-21 in Cambodia. His name is Heng Nath and he was an artist who documented many abuses of himself and other prisoners through art. He survived the horror by painting pictures of S-21 high ranking officials and helping to sculpt busts of Pol Pot himself. Honestly I think his gift of art was the only reason why he was able to testify. He relayed was happened to him and what S-21 was like, he told of the people he saw ...

... a drove to the killing fields. this funnily enough was a field with a few buildings on (most constructed for visitors). We saw the morsaliam, which was full of all the sculls of the executed prisoners. We then walked round the fields, the graves had sunk into the ground, but the paths we walked on still had clothes and bones of the dead that had come to the surface when the ...

... his IV line being held.

Being invited by 2 boys to watch them play musical instruments in the Pagoda at the spot where we picked up the boats.

WORDS TO THE WISE

Do not expect luxury when travelling on the buses here. They even provide plastic stools to sit in the aisles. Don't expect to be able to sit in your reserved seat either - it is a free-for-all and all you will get is passive smiles if you try to do anything about it.

... guide book says cycling is a good way to see the temples so stupid tourists think cycling is a good way to see the temples… Cycling 8km through sweaty hot air on the worlds oldest bicycle was a bit too much of a work out, so we settled for the temple next to town instead of cycling another 5km or more… However, the temple totally made up for the ride, being well restored and full of small details, like reliefs and sculptures and more stone reliefs and more sculptures ...